U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, whose congressional district suffered some of the heaviest punishment Hurricane Sandy dealt to New Jersey, said turnout in today’s election was as high as usual because people saw it as a first step toward rebuilding.

“People really wanted to vote. They associated it with the rebuilding process. In other words, they weren’t discouraged from voting by the storm, and the turnout was very high,” Pallone said. “Now, there were a lot of obstacles because in a lot of towns they couldn’t vote in their traditional voting booth and they were all put together in a municipal building or at the school. But even with those obstacles, turnout was high, and when I talked to people, they were like, ‘Look, I want to vote. This is important. And this is part of our effort to get back a normal routine, and we want to exercise that right.”

Pallone said thousands of his constituents are currently forced out of their homes. But he said most towns were able to host their own election, partially at relocated polling places, with Sea Bright one notable exception.

“It doesn’t seem like in general they were deterred or unable to vote. There were a lot of obstacles, certainly, but it doesn’t seem like they made it any less likely that they voted,” Pallone said.

Pallone said the cooperation between all levels of government in responding to the storm had been good.

“Everybody has been working together,” Pallone said. “The cooperation between the governor, the White House, the counties, all of it has been very good. And that’s important really. We still have a long way to go. What we really need now is temporary housing. These people can’t stay in shelters forever. It’s getting colder. When Janet Napolitano (the U.S. homeland security security) was here the other day, that was my main pitch to her. We either have to open up Fort Monmouth or we have to get the trailers in so people have a place to live for several months. They can’t live in these shelters.”

“We have a lot of work to do,” Pallone said. “A lot of people’s homes, they can’t be rebuilt. Some of them are asking for buyouts. Others are saying that they want them to be raised on pilings so if the storm comes again it doesn’t destroy them. These are the kinds of things I’m looking at.”